Wait For An Investigation
TransUnion will conduct an investigation when you have disputed information on your credit report.
Depending upon the documentation that you provided, TransUnion may make the changes to your credit report solely based on the information you made available. In some cases, however, TransUnion will contact the business who you’ve claimed has reported inaccurate info.
TransUnion will provide that business with details about your dispute and give them a chance to respond. TransUnion will supply the business with the documents you’ve provided and ask the business to update their records accordingly if a change needs to be made.
TransUnion will then get back to you with the results of the investigation. It typically takes around 30 days for an investigation to be completed and for a decision to be made on whether the disputed information is actually inaccurate. However, TransUnion indicates you should allow between 30 days and 45 days for the investigation to be completed.
If TransUnion discovers there was an inaccuracy on your credit report in your investigation, TransUnion will update your credit report accordingly. Regardless of the results of the investigation, however, you will receive notice from TransUnion about what was decided.
Ask The Experts: Dealing With Disputes
For a greater understanding of the credit report dispute process, we asked a panel of credit experts to weigh in on the following questions. You can meet our panel and read their responses below.
Checking Your Nationwide Specialty Credit Reports
Several nationwide specialty credit reporting agencies also exist. These agencies keep records on particular types of transactions, like tenant histories, insurance claims, medical records or payments, employment histories, and check writing histories. These agencies must give you a free report every twelve months if you request it. To get a specialty credit report, you’ll have to contact each agency individually.
How to Stop Getting Prescreened Credit Card and Insurance Offers
Under the FCRA, credit reporting agencies are allowed to include your name on lists that creditors and insurers use to make offers to you, even though you didn’t initiate the process. ). The FCRA also provides you the right to opt out of receiving these offers , which prevents the agencies from providing yourcredit file informationfor these offers. ). You can opt out for five years or permanently.
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Ways To Dispute Information On Your Credit Report
TransUnion and Equifax have their own processes for disputing credit reports, but Experian provides three methods for submitting disputes:
- Online: Get access to your Experian credit report and initiate a dispute at the Experian Dispute Center . There is no cost to you for using this service.
- : To initiate a dispute by phone, you’ll call the number displayed on your Experian credit report. If you’d like to have a copy of your credit report delivered to you by mail, call 866-200-6020.
- : You can dispute without a credit report by writing to Experian, P.O. Box 4500, Allen, TX 75013. .
Wait Up To 45 Days For The Credit Bureau Or Furnisher To Investigate And Respond
The credit bureau generally has 30 days after receiving your dispute to investigate and verify information with the furnisher. The credit bureau must also report the results back to you within five days of completing its investigation.
If you dispute the error with the information furnisher, that company must also report the results of its investigation to you. It also typically has 30 days to investigate. But if the furnisher stands by the accuracy of the information it reported, it wont update or remove the error.
One more thing to note is that either the credit bureau or the furnisher may decide that your dispute is frivolous. This generally happens when youve submitted incorrect or incomplete information on the dispute, but can also occur if youve tried to contest the same item multiple times without any new information or if youve attempted to claim that everything on your credit report is incorrect without proof.
If the bureau decides that your dispute is frivolous, it doesnt need to investigate it further as long as it communicates that to you within five days, along with the reasoning for deeming the dispute frivolous. If your original dispute was labeled frivolous, you can try to resubmit a dispute with updated materials.
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What If You Disagree With The Credit Bureau’s Investigation
If you tell the information provider that you dispute an item, a notice of your dispute must be included anytime the information provider reports the item to a credit bureau while that dispute is being investigated.
Finally, if the investigation does not produce the results you feel are correct, and inaccurate information in your credit report is causing you harm, you may consider hiring a lawyer to help resolve your dispute as a last resort.
The secret to success is to be vigilant and tenacious when it comes to reviewing, repairing, and correcting the record regarding your credit reports.
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Can A Deleted Item Be Put Back On Your Credit Report
In the vast majority of cases, once an account is removed from your credit report it cannot reappear. In fact, if an account was closed more than 7 years ago, it is illegal for it to reappear on your credit report.
Unfortunately, there is one key instance where an account or debt can be readded to your credit report, and that is in the case of a dispute.
When you dispute the information on your credit report, the credit bureau contacts the lender, collection agency, or whoever else furnished the information, for verification. They are initially given 30 days to respond.
If they do not respond within 30 days, then the credit bureau goes ahead and makes changes to your credit report in line with your dispute. But, these changes are not necessarily permanent.
The bank, collection agency, creditor, etc. can come back at any time before the 7 year age limit is up to add the account/debt back to your credit profile. So an account could disappear off your credit report for a few months or a few years, before magically reappearing once more.
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How To Dispute Something On Your Transunion Credit Report
by Christy Bieber | Updated Sept. 14, 2021 – First published on Dec. 25, 2018
Many or all of the products here are from our partners that pay us a commission. Its how we make money. But our editorial integrity ensures our experts opinions arent influenced by compensation. Terms may apply to offers listed on this page.
Did you know that 1 in every 5 Americans has a mistake on their credit report, according to the Federal Trade Commission? If you’re one of the unlucky ones with an error, you could be denied credit when you apply, pay more for loans, or face other problems with employer background checks, utility companies, or cell phone service providers who check your credit.
You don’t want omissions or inaccuracies on your credit report to cost you career or financial opportunities or to make your loans more expensive. To avoid this, you need to keep tabs on your credit. If you spot a problem, such as inaccurate information on your TransUnion credit report, you can follow this guide to dispute the inaccurate info and get your credit report back in shape.
Print Out Your Credit Report And Notate The Errors
In step two you printed out your original credit report. Now, youll want to notate the errors you noticed on your report by circling the items you wish to have changed. Its important that the credit bureau knows exactly what your request is about, so be extra careful here and make sure the information youre citing here matches the description on your credit report dispute form.
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Consider Contacting Your Lenders
If there is something specific to one of your accounts that you dont understand or looks wrong, it may be easier and faster to reach out to your lenders directly. You can find their contact information on your credit report. Lenders will have more details about the status of things like credit card balances and recent payments. They may be able to provide answers and resolve certain concerns quickly. If youre unsure if account information on your report is inaccurate or if an account balance just hasnt been updated yet, your lender may be able to help you. Any updates they make will be sent to us to add & /or change on your credit file.
Send A Letter To The Credit Bureau
Once you identify an error on your credit reports, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recommends that you contact the credit bureaus that produced the reports with the error. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, the three major credit bureaus, let you dispute inaccuracies on their respective consumer credit reports online or by mail.
Give your contact information and, in writing, explain what the error is and why its wrong. Youll find sample letters to dispute credit report information with the credit bureau on the CFPB website. Be sure to include supporting documentation, such as a copy of an email verifying the status of the account thats reported incorrectly. The CFPB also recommends that you keep copies of any letters or documentation that you send, and suggests that if you send it by mail, use certified mail with a return receipt.
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Hire A Credit Repair Service
A reputable company like may be a viable solution if your report is riddled with inaccuracies that further complicate the repair process. can help you with the following items:
- Cleaning up credit report errors
- Disputing inaccurate negative entries
- Handling creditor negotiations
If you decide to hire a credit repair service, know that laws govern how they operate and what they can do. The establishes the following regulations governing credit repair services:
- They cannot provide false or misleading information concerning a persons credit status and identification
- They must provide a detailed description of the service
- They cannot receive payment for the performance of any service until said service has been entirely performed
- There must be a written contract detailing the services to be performed, the time frame during which these services will be performed, and the total cost for those services
- They cannot promise to remove accurate information from a credit report before the term set by law
- The consumer will have three days in which to review the contract and cancel without penalty
Why Did My Credit Score Change
Scores can change when information is added or removed from your credit report, like when you apply for credit or miss a payment. Continuing to make on-time payments and keeping balances low may result in a positive impact to your score. While it may seem like closing an account or canceling a credit card could help raise your score, it may temporarily drop when you lose that information on your report. Healthy habits like those you probably used to pay off your debt will continue to help you improve your credit health over time.
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Send A Request For Goodwill Deletion
Like pay-for-delete, writing a goodwill letter seems like a long shot, but its an option for borrowers who want to exhaust every possible alternative. Write to the creditor and ask for a Goodwill Deletion. If you have taken appropriate steps to pay down your debts and have become a more responsible borrower, you might be able to convince the creditor to remove your mistake.
There is no guarantee that your plea will get a response, but it does get results for some. This strategy is most successful for one-off problems, such as a single missing payment, but it may be futile for borrowers with a history of missed payments and credit mismanagement.
When writing the letter:
- Assume responsibility for the issue that caused the account to be reported to begin with
- Explain why the account was not paid
- If you can, point out good payment history before the incident
What’s In Your Credit Reports
A credit report may include basic information about a consumer’s debts, creditworthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living. The data in the reports from the different credit reporting agencies can vary to some degree, depending on which company produces the report.
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Check Your Credit Reports For Updates
It may take some time for your credit reports to be updated. Creditors can take up to 45 days to send a credit bureau new information, according to TransUnion. If the information isnt updated after 45 days, contact the credit bureaus or data furnisher again to see why inaccurate information is still being reported.
How To Remove Items From Your Credit Report In 2021
Weve outlined how to remove negative items from your credit report, the paid services you can opt to use, and additional information to have on hand. It is important to clarify that only incorrect items can be removed. If youve done this already, but your credit score is still low, you will need to repair bad credit over time. Although accurate items cannot be removed by you or anyone else, there are still many credit report errors that can damage your score, and these are worth looking out for.
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Gather Materials & Documents To Dispute Errors
Before you submit your dispute, you should gather the personal information and documents the credit bureau or creditor may need to investigate your claim.
When you open a dispute, you may be asked for the following personal information:
- A copy of your drivers license or government-issued ID
- SSN
- Your current address and addresses for the past two years
In addition, you may be asked for the following documentation to support your dispute:
- Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Report or a police report if an account has been added as a result of identity theft
- Billing statements
- Canceled check or money order stub showing a bill has been paid
File A Dispute Directly With The Reporting Business
Reporting businesses include credit card issuers and banks. Upon receiving a dispute, they are required by law to investigate and respond. If the reporting business corrects the issue, you saved yourself the step of contacting the credit reporting agency. It is vital to make sure the items are cleaned up for all three credit bureaus mentioned above.
However, trying to work out your debt directly with the lender will not necessarily change the amount of time said negative item would remain on your credit report. It will only change if the dispute is resolved with the lender and deleted from your credit report.
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How To Remove Disputes From Your Credit Report
When you get a mortgage you cant have disputes open. The dispute process lasts approximately 30 days, however, they arent always closed automatically after the 30-day window has passed.
When you dispute an account on your the Credit Bureau adds a comment that you disputed the accuracy of that account. That dispute notation can remain on your credit report long after the dispute is completed. Before you close on a mortgage you must have the credit bureau remove the dispute comments from the reports on your account.
How Disputing Impacts Credit
Filing a dispute with one or all of the credit bureaus has no direct impact on your credit scores. But once the dispute process is completed, any changes to your credit reports could lead to changes in your credit scores.
Whether your score goes up, down or remains the same depends on what you’re disputing and the outcome of the dispute. Removal of mistakenly reported negative information, such as late payments or unpaid collections accounts, could lead to credit score improvements. On the other hand, corrections to your personal information, while important to maintaining accurate credit tracking, have no impact on credit scores.
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Keep Tabs On Your Experian Credit Report
Since the process of having inaccurate information corrected or removed can take about a month, or more in some cases, you shouldn’t wait until you have an adverse credit event such as being denied a loan to discover a mistake and take action.
Check your credit report regularly. If there is an error, you can take action right away to get it fixed before it causes you problems. By keeping your report free of mistakes, you can have the highest credit score possible, which will help you in many of the important financial transactions you enter into during the course of your life.
Sample Letter To A Credit Bureau To Dispute Inaccurate Information:
Date
Your City, State Zip Code
To Whom it May Concern,
This letter is to inform you that you are reporting inaccurate credit information about me, and to officially ask that you open an inquiry into the matter and update my credit profile with the correct information.
It would be detrimental to any future credit applications if this incorrect information persists , so I would appreciate this being taken care of as quickly as possible.
The error is xxxxx .
I am attaching the following proof, xxxxx .
The error is with Name of Credit Card, Bank, Etc. Account #xxxx xxx xxxx.
Please investigate and delete this detrimental information. Thank you in advance for your efforts.
Sincerely,
Your City, State Zip Code
Re: Acct #xxxx xxx xxxx
To Whom it May Concern,
I recently received a copy of my credit report from xxxxx , and was surprised to see that you reported xxxxx .
Not only is this not the case, but according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act , you are required to notify me when negative information such as this is listed, and I have not received this notification.
I am disputing your claim with the credit bureau and am officially requesting you to open an investigation into this matter.
Attached please find the following proof, xxxxx
According to the FCRA, you have 30 days to look into this and respond to my request. If you dont respond within that time, you must remove this negative information.
Thank you in advance for your efforts.
Sincerely,
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